


Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children 2.0

by Spooky_Spooks



Series: Peculiar Children Author's Not a Coward AU [1]
Category: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
Genre: Alternate Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Looks shippier than it will be i think, M/M, Teenage Drama, Warnings May Change, author isnt a coward au, more tags as I think of them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26271067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spooky_Spooks/pseuds/Spooky_Spooks
Summary: As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob and his best friend Ricky journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where they discover the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As the pair explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive.Basically, I'm just re-writing the series in an AU where the author isn't a coward and we're not robbed of Ricky Pickering's existence.
Relationships: Emma Bloom/Bronwyn Bruntley, Emma Bloom/Jacob Portman, Enoch O'Connor/Horace Somnusson, Hugh Apiston/Fiona Frauenfeld, Millard Nullings/Victor Bruntley, Ricky Pickering/Jacob Portman
Series: Peculiar Children Author's Not a Coward AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1908703
Comments: 12
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't write this in the first person, or Jacob's POV because a) Jacob is the human equivalent of white bread and I just can't force myself to write from that headspace and b) the first person is the bane of my existence. So y'all get whatever this is, I hope you enjoy it!

Ricky’s life was never normal. Not in that happy, white suburbia way that Jacob’s had been. Not only had he grown up with a poor single mom after his deadbeat father left them, but he had just been strange for as long as he could remember. Thankfully, Ricky wasn’t strange in a way people could see. He had what his mother called a strong intuition, but Ricky knew it was more than that, no one’s intuition felt like alarm bells blaring in their head, or prickling under there skin. More than that, no one’s intuition was always right. So, long story short, Ricky’s life had never been normal. But it had never been strange, not like this anyway.  


The night Jacob called to check in on his grandfather changed both of their lives forever, in a way that forced them to abandon any semblance of normal they had known. As soon as Ricky began to drive them to Abe’s home, his ‘strong intuition’ kicked in. It grew stronger as they pulled into the driveway, the prickling under his skin so incessant that it was almost impossible to resist the urge to scratch at it. He absolutely hated it when Jacob told him to remain outside, though he could see the logic in it.

“Ricky!” Came Jacob’s voice from the backyard and Ricky was up like a shot, running around the side of the house.

His relief to see Jacob alright vanished when the alarm bells in his head began to go off. Like second nature, Ricky knew exactly where to look. There was a large, gagged slice in the screen door to the house.

  
He let out a whistle as he pointed it out to Jacob. “That’s a helluva cut. Wild pig coulda done it. Or a bobcat maybe. You should see the claws on them things.”

  
Then, as if that wasn’t enough to set the pair on edge, a sudden chorus of barking dogs certainly was. Jacob suggested a dog may have done it, and Ricky agreed, the signals in his mind only growing louder as they continued their conversation. He insisted Jacob stayed put while he went back to the car to retrieve his gun. Something was going to go south tonight, but he would be damned if he let something happen to Jacob.

  
When he got back to the back of the house, Jacob was gone. 

  
“Fuck,” he muttered, not seeing his friend anywhere. “Special Ed? Jacob! Where are you?”

  
“I’M HERE!” Came Jacob’s voice from the woods.

  
Ricky let out a sigh of relief at hearing Jacob alive and well before he followed the sound into the dense Florida underbrush. He pushed through the palmettos, frantically searching for any sign of Jacob or his grandfather. The plants sliced at his exposed skin as he ran, but he refused to acknowledge his injuries until the sirens in his head lessened, signaling they were out of danger. It took him a few moments to see the light of Jacob’s flashlight, but the second he spotted it, he rushed towards it without hesitation.

  
Nothing could have prepared Ricky for what he saw when he finally broke into the clearing where Jacob’s voice had come from. Jacob sat crouched on the ground, his flashlight abandoned by his side. Though what shook Ricky was the man, presumably Jacob’s grandfather, laying in his lap. The man was bloodsoaked, wounds all over his midsection bleeding heavily, barely clinging to life, if he was alive at all.

  
“Oh, man. Oh, Jesus. Oh Jesus,” He said, stumbling back at the sight and rubbing his hands over his face. “Can you find a pulse? Oh, Jesus, we should call the cops. Fuck, Jake, did you see anything? Is there anything in these woods?”

  
Jacob seemed numb to his rambling. In lieu of a response, he stood, dropping the body in his arms as he grabbed his flashlight and turned it towards a spot in the bushes. Ricky looked at the now illuminated brush, but couldn’t see anything. Just as he was about to ask what Jake was looking for, he let out a shout.

  
“Holy crap!” Jacob yelled, seeming to startle whatever was in the bushes.

  
The resulting rustle from the brush seemed to make the alarms in Ricky’s head louder. Without thinking, he gave into the reflex to shoot, firing four shots in rapid succession, aiming in the direction that Jacob’s flashlight had been pointing. 

  
“What was that? What the hell was that?” He asked, trying to gauge the amount of danger they were in, though Jacob didn’t seem to be paying him any mind.

  
Jacob had gone pale, concerningly so. He was trembling and didn’t seem to be able to catch a breath. 

  
“Jacob? Jake?” Ricky called out, stepping closer to his friend, his concern growing even as the alarm bells in his head began to die down. “Hey Ed?”

  
His attempts to catch Jacob’s attention seemed to fall on deaf ears as Jacob remained unresponsive, only staring into the dark woods where his flashlight remained pointing.

“Are you okay, or what?” Ricky asked, reaching out to grab Jacob’s arm. However, he quickly had to shift positions and catch Jacob as he dropped to the ground.

Ricky gently lowered Jacob to the ground, checking him over for injuries. He sighed in relief when his pat-down revealed him to be unharmed. Ricky couldn’t say the same for Jacob’s grandfather, however. The man hadn’t moved since he had entered the clearing, and Ricky was almost afraid to touch him. Almost.

  
With one hand, Ricky ran his hand across the man’s neck, searching for a pulse. There was none. With the other, he reached into one of his jacket pockets, grabbing for his phone. He dialed 911, uncertain of what else to do, sure his voice was shaking as he spoke to the operator. He stayed on the phone as he waited for the police and ambulance to arrive, nervously eyeing the bushes, worried whatever had done this might return. He knew it wouldn’t though, his ‘strong intuition’ would have told him.

  
He was hesitant to be parted from Jacob when the EMT’s took him into the ambulance, knowing he would need a friend, but knew it would be less trouble if he did as he was asked. The police took him in for questioning. They asked what had happened, what he saw, how he knew Jacob, all of the standard questions, and likely more. He answered them all truthfully. He thinks Jacob’s grandfather was attacked by an animal but couldn’t be sure, he didn’t see anything other than some moving bushes, and he knew Jacob from school.

  
Ricky tried not to be angry when Jacob’s parents wouldn’t let him check in on Jacob afterward, but failed. He knew they disliked him, hated him even, but couldn’t they see Jacob would need a friend right now, no matter who that might be? Whether his parents liked it or not, Ricky was Jacob’s friend, and he was going to be there for him, parents be damned.


	2. Chapter Two

The months following Abe Portman’s death were difficult. Sure, Ricky didn’t know the guy, but he knew Jacob, and Jacob had taken it badly. He had been having nightmares nightly and was so paranoid he couldn’t even leave his house. Most concerning though, was Jacob’s insistence that a monster had killed his grandfather. 

Ricky had no idea what to do. Jacob was his friend, and he wanted to do something to help him, but what could he do? It wasn’t like he could get rid of his nightmares or bring his grandfather back. All he could do was stay with him, make him feel less alone in what he was going through. Although he could tell Jacob’s parents weren’t happy about it, Ricky tried to stay over at their house as often as he could. He stayed by Jacob’s side trying his best to make him feel protected and safe, even when Jacob insisted they sleep on the laundry room floor with the door locked. The day of Abe’s funeral was one of these days, seeing the pair seated on the dryer attempting to distance themselves from the tragedy of the day with videogames on Jacob’s laptop.

When Jacob was once again comfortable with sitting outside, the pair sat on his roof deck, talking about that night. The conversation was awkward and uncomfortable, Jacob insisting against all reason that he had seen a monster, that had killed his grandfather. Ricky hadn’t seen any monster and was beginning to get scared for Jacob’s well being, more so than he already was. 

“They attacked at night!” Jacob insisted. “Which is exactly when the creatures are hardest to see!”

Ricky shook his head, finding Jacob’s certainty hard to believe. “Whatever man, I think you might need a brain-shrinker.”

“You mean head-shrinker,” Jacob replied, clearly beginning to grow upset. “And thanks a lot. It’s great to have such supportive friends.”

“Whatever, I’m just being straight with you,” Ricky shrugged. “Keep talking about monsters and they’re gonna put you away. Then you really will be Special Ed.”

Jacob visibly tensed. “Don’t call me that.”

Ricky flicked out his cigarette, tossing it into one of the flowerpots Jacob’s mother had put out on the deck before spitting his tobacco over the railing.

“Were you just smoking and chewing tobacco at the same time?” Jacob asked, an eyebrow raised.

Ricky snorted. “What are you, my mom?”

“Do I  _ look  _ like I blow truckers for food stamps?” Jacob laughed.

Anger seared red-hot through Ricky’s veins at Jacob’s words. He felt the rage reach a boiling point as he sprang up, shoving Jacob hard, almost uncaring of how close to the roof’s edge he was. He heard Jacob yelling at him to leave as he stormed off, but didn’t dignify him with a response.

_ What the fuck is wrong him? What did he know? Of course, Jacob looked down on him, his family was rich! Ricky was a moron for thinking that Jacob could be a friend to him. Ricky had only ever been Jacob’s glorified bodyguard. He should have known better. _

Ricky had gotten nearly the entire way home before the anger left him. He pulled over, turning off his car and simply sitting. He sighed, running his hands through his hair. Now that his anger had dissipated, all that remained was hurt. Jacob had been Ricky’s only friend, and now he didn’t even have that. He realized he had begun to cry, cursing himself for getting so emotional about a stupid argument. Ricky waited until his tears dried before turning the car back on and turning around. They needed to talk things out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this one is a bit shorter. I'm not super happy with the chapter ending, so I might change it later.


End file.
